Save webpages to read later with Google's new Chrome extension

Google has quietly launched a new Chrome extension that lets you save webpages to the cloud for later reading. The extension rivals existing tools with the same purpose including Pocket, Evernote and Microsoft OneNote.

The Save to Google extension is a companion to Google Saves, a recently-launched cloud-based utility that lets Google users save webpages, images and text snippets to their account for access from any device. The concept is very similar to existing services that let users save links for later, including popular app Pocket and digital notebooks Evernote and OneNote.

All three rivals already have their own Chrome extensions to let you quickly add content to your account. You can save webpages to a single centralised location, tagging content by category to make it easier to find unread articles in the future.

Save with Google uses much the same approach. The free extension adds a new button to the Chrome toolbar once installed. When clicked, the button adds the current webpage to Google Save where it can be viewed online. The page can then be tagged to let you organise what you save.

The extension overlaps an existing Google product, Save to Google Drive. The two have slightly different but related functionality that could prove to be confusing to consumers. Save to Google Drive saves a physical copy of a webpage to your Google Drive cloud storage. Save with Google merely adds a bookmark to Google Saves, effectively creating a reading list of online items instead of hard copies of webpages.

To add to the confusion, Google has a third way to save online content for later reference. On mobile devices, images can be saved from search results by tapping on an image and pressing "Save." The image is sent to Google Saves in a similar way to the Save with Google extension.

Save with Google could be a useful way for Google users to keep track of things they want to read online. In its current state, the extension is pretty limited though. There are no mobile apps and saves can only be viewed from the web interface.

As it stands, Pocket, Evernote and OneNote are more versatile ways to save content from the web to a centralised location. The former is solely a way to keep track of links to webpages while Evernote and OneNote give you complete digital notebooks with web snipping on the side. Their respective Chrome extensions are named Save to Pocket, Evernote Web Clipper and OneNote Clipper.

Yesterday, another rival entered the playing field as Facebook announced it is launching its own "save" button. Save to Facebook will appear on websites alongside traditional Like and Share buttons. Saved content will be visible on Facebook's website and in the social network's mobile apps, another way for web users to keep tabs on articles they haven't finished reading.